The Gay Science

Friedrich Nietzsche

1882

November, 2023

6.5/10

Nietzsche has an understanding of people and our condition. From a book of this age, it's interesting to see the persistence of such problems, particularly the degradation of the minds of the populace. For example, his take on pity was an excellent sentiment — having pity is for the lowly; it doesn't accomplish anything. I also enjoyed his prediction in piece 47: how accurate he was that we would become only more savage in our humanity.

His thoughts on art and artists, namely poets, was very good. It reminds me of The Myth of Sisyphus to an extent. His discussion on why he writes, piece 93, also spoke to me. He and Charles Bukowski express similar ideas which I must also agree with.

His ideas on genders were rather strange. First, he says that women will do anything to appear weak. Then, he says the roles society has placed on women is the fault of men. But he goes on to associate women with those roles. The book is from another time, of course, but it seems Nietzsche didn't quite see through the period's issues. There are also many other topics of which his ideas are rather peculiar such as regarding religions and peoples.

Things start picking up around piece 300. Piece 329, for example, is a beautiful expression of society's obsession with "doing things." The idea that how letters are written (applicable to today's mediums) are "signs of the times" was especially lucid.

In any case, he covers many topics, often very briefly. More specifically, it feels like he talks about topics rather than investigating them. It often felt superficial. As a standalone introduction to philosophy and philosophical topics in general, I would say this is a fair resource. However, much of the value felt lost to the breadth and brevity.